Is Spiritualism a Fraud? – The Medium Exposed

1906 Comedy 7 minutes Directed by J.H. Martin

Open in new tab

About Is Spiritualism a Fraud? – The Medium Exposed

A medium and his white-haired assistant plan a séance. The assistant hides in a chest. Guests tie the medium to a chair and hold hands in the dark. A floating head, gloved hands, and a skull appear. The light shows the assistant working them on a stick. The men nail the medium, still tied to the chair, inside the chest, carry it downstairs, and dump it on a postman's cart. On a piece of waste ground the chest falls off. A postman, a policeman, and a passer-by wheel him to the station.

Cast & crew

More about Is Spiritualism a Fraud? – The Medium Exposed

Walter R. Booth directed the trick film for Robert W. Paul. It is also credited to J. H. Martin. The BFI print is 388 feet. Wikidata times it at 7 minutes. The street chase was shot in Muswell Hill. Booth and Paul made it as one of their last films together. The main title asks the question. A subtitle answers it: The Medium Exposed.

Themes

Making

Booth, a stage magician, shows the apparatus instead of hiding it. The séance is a studio room. The cart and the waste ground are Muswell Hill streets.

Preservation

A 388-foot print is held by the BFI.

Notes

  • The medium is a man. The assistant wears a long white wig and hides in a chest before the sitters arrive.
  • While the room is dark, a young man in a straw boater kisses another sitter's wife. Her husband, who is hard of hearing, pulls them apart when the light returns.
  • The effects are shown on purpose: the head, the hands, and the skull are props on a stick.
  • Michael Brooke notes that the film has also been attributed to J. H. Martin.
  • The chase down the stairs and into the street echoes Booth and Paul's The Unfortunate Policeman (1905).

Scenes

  • A white-haired head, a pair of gloves, and a skull float in the dark, then the light shows the stick.
  • The sitters nail the tied medium into the chest and roll him off on a postman's cart.

Influenced by

  • The Unfortunate Policeman (1905)

Also available

  • BFI Screenonline